Vista 64-bit on X300?

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juhap · #1 Post by **juhap** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:08 am

Any experiences on running 64-bit Vista on X300? I took a quick look at the support pages and at least there seems to 64-bit drivers available for X300 but is it "officially" supported?

#2 Post by **erik** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:53 am

vista x64 is supported. drivers can be downloaded automatically using thinkvantage system update or manually via the device driver matrix page. official lenovo technical support will only support it if the machine originally shipped with x64 -- and no X300 can be configured with x64 yet.

i have vista ultimate x64 running on my T61p and X61 and will install it on my X300 when it arrives on thursday.

elmokiddo · #3 Post by **elmokiddo** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:23 am

I am running Vista x64 on my X300, it has only been around 12 hours so far but everything is working perfectly as far as I can tell.

The only thing I have been unable to confirm is the GPS, for the life of me I can't get a signal it seems... when I hit search again it only searches for 2-3 seconds and then gives up, and the max fix time is set at 255.

Lenovo did a great job with the idea of the GPS functionality, but it really doesn't follow the trend of all of their other tools with the option of transparency and information catering to an informed customer base... I would have thought they could have included some basic GPS statistics like sat numbers, the times it is using, signal strengths...

Has anyone else had experiences with the GPS - is it just that it has inherent terrible reception??

abendx · #4 Post by **abendx** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:55 pm

Does it make sense to run the 64-bit OS on the slower, low voltage processor?

elmokiddo · #5 Post by **elmokiddo** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:21 pm

I think it makes even more sense (in a way) - programs can take advantage of the 64 bit architecture to run more efficiently, sort of counter balancing the slowness of the CPU.

It works more in theory then practice though because not many programs are optimized for 64-bit... more and more are such as IE, Nod32, I think some of the Lenovo/ThinkVantage utilities are though.

I personally don't see a noticable diff because it is hard to compare... IE has both the 64-bit and 32-bit installed and on 3 different computers I have tried - in all cases the 64-bit version is much faster!

I also have 4GB of ram and you need 64-bit to take advantage of that.

abendx · #6 Post by **abendx** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:37 am

Ok... not debating the use of your 4GB of RAM. I am just wondering if the 64 bit OS is going to want to over tax the slower processor? It is late.... and it's been a very long day. My thinking is that the 64 bit OS is going to want all it can get. No?

I ordered one of these bad boys... should be here the day after tomorrow. If 64 is going to buy me more than 32.... well,

I just have my reservations.

elmokiddo · #7 Post by **elmokiddo** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:01 am

I am not 100% sure of that, as far as I know a 64-bit OS will tax the CPU (slow or fast) the same as a 32-bit OS would - If you do a quick google search on 64bit vs. 32bit you would find that in application or real-life benchmarks, the 64bit OS will perform slightly faster then a 32bit.

I think when it comes down to it, even if the OS taxes the CPU more (never heard of this but dont really know...) the benefits of the architecture will outweight that and you will still have faster performance in day-to-day tasks. I hope that helps and congrats on the X300!

abendx · #8 Post by **abendx** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:52 am

Ok... then 64 bit it is

#9 Post by **erik** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:24 am

the SL7100 is a 64-bit processor so if anything it's going to be more efficient with a 64-bit OS. efficiency usually equates to speed.

vista ultimate x64 runs just fine on my X300 and nothing yet has lead me to think that anything is being taxed. all of my C2D thinkpads (T61p, X300, and X61) run a 64-bit version of vista and each of them seemed faster after making the switch from x86 to x64.

abendx · #10 Post by **abendx** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:43 am

Thanks guys. I wonder why Lenovo doesn't give us the option of getting 64-bit disks? They are easy enough to get... but it would seem they should be able to provide them (or am I missing something?).

Azul · #11 Post by **Azul** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:53 pm

Not only is it working flawlessly for me, but I believe it makes my x300 more power efficient. The most glaring example in my instance is the BitLocker drive encryption which Vistax64 chews through so fast it's almost undetectable. 32-bit OS's work much harder for certain tasks, and this will ultimately cause more of a power drain.

Even with many apps still in WOW64 mode, I think the momentum behind 64-bit is already strong enough to make it the better choice.

(Also, someone should measure the power drain of watching a DVD on 64-bit WMP vs. 32-bit WMP; I think this would be another big gain for 64-bit.)

tylerwylie · #12 Post by **tylerwylie** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:39 am

It really depends on the applications you will be using(the difference between 64 and 32 bit). If most of your applications have been made for 64 bit architectures you may be persuaded to change. If you plan on running a bunch of 32 bit only applications you might not see a need to jump yet. Also 64 bit applications use a lot more RAM so you might want to take that into account if you're not running >2GB of RAM.

Vista 64-bit on X300?

Vista 64-bit on X300?

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